Laura Picchi

Traduzione a cura di Carla Loffredo, suo marito e suo figlio

Sandro Marcucci’s case summary.
Sandro Marcucci was a former Colonel of the Italian Air Force. With former Air Force Captain Mario Ciancarella investigated on disaster of Ustica, when the Warrant-Officer Dettori, in a telephone conversation with the same Cap. Ciancarella, said “We shot down the DC9 Itavia airplane." and "Take a look at the times of the landings and at radar-guided warhead missile.”

The finding of military guidelines afterward confirmed how precious the clues were that Dettori gave to Ciancarella, to find out one day, if we really want, the specific possible political-military responsibilities about the disaster of Ustica in that evening of June 27, 1980.
Col. Sandro Marcucci was able to find two witnesses, both military in service at Pratica di Mare Air Base, willing to give evidence to the Judge, that the Libyan military airplane which crashed on the Sila Mountain, took off from Pratica di Mare Air Base.

He kept to himself the names of those witnesses, determined to reveal them only to the Judge Priore, but on February 2, 1992, when he had already resigned from the Air Force and was working for the Tuscany Region, he died in a strange plane crash.
We have reason to believe that the two Marcucci’s witnesses were the Air Force General Licio Giorgieri, killed in 1987 by terrorist group Brigate Rosse (he asked for a military escort but this was denied) and Angelo Carfagna (he killed himself on 1996, jumping out of a building window, but there are still many doubts about the dynamic of this accident).
But why was the Marcucci’s accident strange?
The investigation concluded that the plane crash was caused by the wind and by the fact that Cap. Marcucci was flying below 500 feet of altitude failing to comply with the Visual Flight Rules (VFR).
With regard to the wind conditions all witnesses stated that was no wind on the Sunday when the accident occurred, but nobody knows why the investigation into the cause of the accident indicated the wind as a concomitant cause.
And with regard to the possibility of Cap. Marcucci flying safely under 500 feet for the specific fire control mission it is sufficient to read the documentation on the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System in this blog, other then the Ciancarella’s chapter 7, for understanding that the findings of the Court in the city of Massa, were all wrong

Below 500 feet (taking into account the highest obstacle on the ground) Marcucci could fly and flew within the law.
The body of Sandro Marcucci was recovered burned to death.

The Commission of Inquiry concluded that the fire started after the crash of the piper on the ground.
This is wrong too.
A few inches from the head of the Marcucci's body, as can be seen on the pictures in Chap.7, there is a tree not affected by fire or smoke. The aluminum structure of the plane beside the body is also clearly visible and not affected by any fire. The aluminum would melt on contact with the fire, while, on the contrary, there is no evidence of this in those pictures.
Moreover between the Marcucci’s head and the tree on the picures, it seems there are also traces of snow. The fire did not even melt the snow?
But what is the advice from an expert that made an examination of the burned body? “…the body of this man was not burned to death because of the plane fuel.” He said.

But the investigation was concluded without even listening this person. The same person, that was a mortuary technician, also found two fragments in Marcucci’s chest and, in the presence of Ciancarella, he exclaimed: “Oh my God, something exploded over his body!”.

These are the reasons why we are asking, for many years now, to reopen the Marcucci-Lorenzini’s case.

Laura Picchi